Sexual Assault

 PAVE currently provides the following services for sexual assault victims:

• Shelter
• Options Counseling
• SANE Medical Advocacy
• Support Groups
• Legal Advocacy
• Emergency Transportation
• 24 Hour Crisis Line

PREVENTION AND HELP

The following is a list of what we can do in our community to assist in sexual violence prevention:

• Talk with your children in a non-judgemental way about their relationships.
• Teach your child how to recognize inappropriate touches, to resist them, and to report all inappropriate touches to a trusted adult. 
•  Provide good relationship examples.
• Should you be a bystander witnessing this behavior, talk to the people in a non-threatening way.
• Call 911 should you feel uncomfortable intervening in a potential violent situation.
• Be aware of your surroundings and trust your gut instinct in potentially unsafe situations.
• Be in a group at night if possible.
• Read books and become familiar with sexual predators to become aware of their characteristics.
• Contact media that promotes sexual violence and let them know your opinion against this material.
• Learn self-protective behaviors.
• Be aware that if you consume alcohol and/or drugs  that this might inhibit your reactions to violent sexual behavior.
• Learn to sensitively support rape survivors.  By showing your support and belief, survivors will feel safer to seek medical, emotional, and legal help.

This is brief list of what you can do to prevent sexual violence.  For more information or should you have questions, please contact us at 1-800-775-3785.  We are here to help.

Sexual violence is any act which breaks a person's trust and/or safety and is sexual in nature.  The term "sexual violence" includes: rape, incest, child sexual assault, ritual abuse, date and acquaintance rape, marital or partner rape, sexual contact, sexual harassment, exposure and voyeurism.

Sexual assault is widely accepted to be a vastly underreported crime.  It is estimated that less than 40% of victims report their crime to police.  This makes collecting accurate data about sexual assault challenging.  

Here are the facts for Wisconsin (based on reports made to law enforcement in 2004):

    *  An estimated 5,618 sexual assaults were reported in 2004.

    *  88.9% of all sexual assaults were perpetrated by someone                     known to the victim.

    *  58.5% of all assaults took place in either the victim's or the                  offender 's home.

    *  77% of all sexual assault victims were juveniles.

    *  The average age of the offender was 24.

    *  The average age of the victim was 15. 

These facts are borrowed  from the 2007 Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault Information Sheet Series #155A